Grassley pushes for fast-track authority

DavidClarke

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday that he expected he and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., could agree later in the summer on a bill to grant the president increased authority to negotiate trade pacts without congressional amendment.

On Tuesday Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Bob Graham, D-Fla., proposed a bill that would grant the president the so-called fast-track authority. Read the release.

A spokesmen for Baucus said the senator feels there is room to reach an agreement, but that the Murkowski-Graham bill sought by the administration did not go far enough in addressing labor and environmental concerns.

The authority, which expired in 1994 and has not been renewed, would allow the president to negotiate trade pacts and submit them to Congress for an up-or-down vote but no amendment.

The House turned back President Clinton's bid for such authority in 1998.

Opponents have said it erodes Congress' authority over trade policy. In the past, special interests such as labor groups or industry organizations have been able to get Congress to amend agreements they don't like.

No fast-track bill will get done, Grassley said, if it includes provisions that would impose sanctions on countries that don't meet certain labor or environmental standards, which have been the heart of the debate. Including these provisions would cause any fast-track bill to lose one Republican vote for every Democrat it picked up, he said.

In the early 1990s Republicans opposed the idea because they felt Clinton might lend too much weight to labor and environmental concerns, said Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Now, the Democrats may exact some revenge and not grant Bush broader trade authority because they feel he will give no weight to the same issues, according to Bosworth.

"Within the United States there is simply no consensus with regards to trade," he said.

Grassley was joined today at a news conference by former trade negotiators from previous administrations. They, along with Grassley, signed a letter urging members of Congress to get a deal done this year.

The lack of such negotiating authority since 1994 has caused allies to question United States' trade leadership, said Clayton Yeutter, a former U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration.

It hurts negotiators because countries are suspicious of any trade agreement agreed to by an administration if they know Congress can add amendments to it later, said Stuart Eizenstat, who served as the U.S. Representative to the European Union in the Clinton administration and was a domestic affairs advisor to Carter.

Narrowing the debate to labor and environmental issues now would be a mistake, said John Schachter, spokesman for the Business Roundtable. Environmental and labor concerns are unique to each trade agreement and should be dealt with at that time, he said. "What we need to keep in mind is the big picture, which is getting the U.S. back to the negotiating table," Schachter said.

Dozens of corporate executives in the Business Roundtable met with Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick at the White House last week to discuss tactics for getting fast-track approved.

Environmental groups have maintained their opposition to granting the president broader trade powers. "Most environmental groups will oppose any fast-track bill that does not prevent negotiators from brokering deals that undermine our environmental laws," said Sara Zdeb, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth.

Rep. Phil Crane, R-Ill., has proposed a bill in the House. Grassley said he hoped a bill would get through either the House or the Senate before the administration begins new rounds of talks this fall on a trade pact with Latin American countries, known as the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

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